Thomas Wang Portfolio + Resume

THOMAS WANG

EMAIL:

thomaswang.wht@gmail.com

PHONE:

213-999-6880

WEBSITE:

https://shorturl.at/nBER0

EDUCATION Columbia University Graduate Student 5/2023 - Current New York, United States

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M.S. Advanced Architectural Design 2024 (MSAAD) Awards: M.S. Advanced Architectural Design Program Scholarship.

University of Southern California Undergraduate Student 8/2018 - 5/2023 Los Angeles, United States

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Bachelor of Architecture 2023 (B.Arch) ; 3.86 GPA. ­Master of Urban Planning 2023 (MUP); 3.92 GPA. Awards: Ronald Altoon Leadership Award; Sol Price School of Public Policy Dean’s Merit Scholarship; Pierre Koenig Endowment Fund; The Barry Gittelson Award; The Lee Buckley Endowment Scholarship.

WE-Designs Design Assistant 11/2023 - Current New York, United States

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Designed 3 initial concepts for a city installation; presented them using digital models and renders to BRIC, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and April Worker.

Revised details to structural and code compliance from communicating with consultants.

Corgan Student Architectural Intern - Data Centers 5/2022 - 8/2022 Los Angeles, United States

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WangXiaoHui Art Museum Co-Architectural Designer 1/2021 - 6/2021 Shanghai, China

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AECOM (Design) Architectural Summer Intern 6/2019 - 8/2019 Shanghai, China

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PROFESSIONAL •

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Assisted with CA phase of a Data Center project (NDA), including communication with consultants, Submittals, RFIs, and Field Reports.

Assisted in the CD phase of a Data Center project (NDA), including life safety calculations, code review, vertical circulation and elevation details through Revit.

Concept design to redesign façade of existing building with Elaine Zhu for famous artist XiaoHui Wang’s art museum.

Learned to communicate with client, other designers, and consultants with Rhino, Grasshopper, and hand sketch to find coherence and feasibility in design.

Produced site plan render with Photoshop for Zhejiang University Second Hospital Project, which was a winning project proposal.

Modeled a parametric outer skin facade and a central, communal feature space with Rhino and Grasshopper for Kunming Wujiaba Greenland Headquarters.

Generated surrounding site massing and analysis diagrams for DongGuangNan Station TOD. Organized the project proposal presentation deck.

ACADEMIC Chinese Elite Consortium (青年精英联盟 青年精英联盟) Vice President & Event Leader 9/2019 - Current Los Angeles, United States

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The Complete Works of Hassan Fathy Research Assistant 1/2019 - 10/2019 Los Angeles, United States

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In charge of the secretary team that work on internal affairs management.

Organized Davos Lab II Discussion Panel made up of young leaders, conferring the increasing importance of ethics and social impact of private sector business.

Advise the president and CEC team on organization management and operation.

Helped Professor James B. Steele to research, scan, draw, and organize materials for his architecture history book on Hassan Fathy in Cairo, Egypt.

Learned basic responsibilities of a research assistant such as communicating with film scanning facilities and organizing production due dates.

SKILLS /INTERESTS Software Skills

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Revit, Rhino, Vray, Enscape, Grasshopper, Dynamo, ClimateStudio, RhinoInside, BIM 360, BlueBeam, ProCore, AutoCad, Houdini, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premier, Lightroom, Excel, Word, Powerpoint.

Analog Skills

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Native Mandarin, Native English, Basic French, Model buildings, Hand drawing, Laser cutting, Woodworking, 3D Printing.

Interests

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Golf, Curling, Skiing, Ice hockey, Foodie.

Thomas Wang Columbia GSAPP MSAAD Student thomaswang.wht@gmail.com +12139996880

TABLE OF CONTENT

University Project Pin-Point Limits of Nature Crossroads Curtain Call

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Personal Built Project Wangxiaohui Art Museum

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Internship Project 27

Kuunming Wujiaba Greenland Headquarters Dongguangnan Station TOD

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LinkedIn

Personal Website

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaswang-225392197/

https://www.thomaswangarchitecture. com/

University Project

PIN-POINT Fourth Year - May 2022 Instructor: Jennifer Siegal

Pin-Point is a 6-story, 42,000 SF mass timber and CLT project designed for the USC Center for Social Justice located on the corner of the primary N Alameda St and the Ord St side street with a less busy N Main St on the east side of the building in Chinatown. It creates a connective space where USC faculty and students from multiple disciplines engage with neighborhood community in issues of social justice through three departments: service, research and community engagement.

The project contains three primary programs, Social Justice Research, Social Justice Community Engagement, and Social Justice Public Lecture Education, which are located in the project’s three wings revolving around a central pin-point. The central tower acts as the primary vertical circulation and connection point between the three wings, holding a 6-story atrium stair space.

The main entrance opens up to the smaller N Main Street, diverting the traffic away from busy N Alameda Street. On the north side, a large open courtyard connects the project to the Alameda Triangle to enforce the connection to the local community and social inclusiveness.

Towards the west side, a more private gathering space allows breathing room for the buildings a more quiet private gathering space for the users.

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Building Height Analysis

Vegetation Analysis

Traffic Density Analysis

Organic Bridge Form Third Floor

Transportation to Site Analysis

Building Type Analysis

Site Slope Analysis

Lot Size

Indent for Public Space

Wing Extrusion Up

Porous First Floor

Carve Away to Lighten Building

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Bridge to Connect Wings

Program Assignment into 3 Wings

The first floor of the project is more porous with flexible circulation paths across the project. Such formal breakdown increases visual connections across the ground floor green spaces and encourages communal interaction between the students, professors, and researchers on the site. The third floor contains fluid connection of the bridge to allow easy movement across the two wings for the busiest floor. The organic bridge connection acts as an alien object to break the rigidness of the orthogonal building form and harshness of the aluminum louvers to reveal the glass on the shaded side.

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North Façade Exposes More Glazing

Sun Path Diagram

North Courtyard with Façade Carved Away

Natural Ventilation Diagram

Pin-Point’s façade comprises of aluminum louvers that wrap around the entire building, facing towards the sun path to reduce direct sunlight into the building. The façade facing southwest and southeast are mostly covered compared to the facades facing the north side, which are excavated based on voids from the bridge formation to reveal the glazing behind.

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Main Entrance with Louver Coverage and Minimal Opening for Entrance

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The project uses a multi-split HVAC system with a single outdoor unit, allowing indoor space to be controlled separately and precisely. The project also obtains a water recycling system that takes greywater from the building, overflow groundwater, and rainwater and process it through a UV filtration system that is stored and reused for irrigation, sprinkler system, and building use.

The mechanical systems are hidden between the double CLT ceiling, which creates a clean finish to the interior. The louver façade is attached to the glazing via aluminum rods to provide an air gap between the louver and the glazing.

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Multi-split HVAC system

Mass Timber Interior Finish

Section Through Central Staircase

Sprinkler System

Section Through Double Height Spaces

The project’s interior is mainly composed of CLT wood finishes. The double height stepping balcony and event spaces increase spaciousness in the compact building, providing activity areas with more breathing room. The central vertical circulation implements a spiral design staircase creating a 6-story atrium that again provides the user with a visual and experimental break.

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Water Recycling System & Vacuum Toilets

University Project

LIMITS OF NATURE Fifth Year Thesis - May 2023 Instructor: Wendy Fok

Awards: Final Degree Project Award; A + D Museum In School Critical Computation Alibi Winner; Featured on Dezeen The Limits of Nature seeks to critique the current top-down design process within the context of the ongoing discourse on sustainable practices and our connection with the environment. While architects actively strive to create environmentally friendly futures through sustainable systems and green infrastructure, the industry remains susceptible to issues like greenwashing. This critique offers an alternative perspective that built upon visions of visionary architects like Étienne-Louis Boullée, who advocates for truly sustainable future where the human environment replicates and thrives harmoniously with the natural environment.

The perspective seeks for a shift from the traditional human-centered design approach to a nature-centric, bottom-up design process.

In this paradigm, biomaterials such as crystals take center stage, growing into architectural structures, and evolving alongside the natural world.

This approach minimizes human intervention, reducing the potential for errors and biases, relegating human design to the foundational skeletal structure or guiding elements of the building. Meanwhile, crystals’ inherent selforganizing and self-growing characteristics fill the building’s floors, walls, and window frames.

By entrusting the age-old wisdom of nature regarding optimal organization, formation, and adaptation for survival, both humanity and the natural environment can coexist harmoniously within an ever-evolving and sustainable world.

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Precedents of Different Methods of Biomaterial Design

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Explorations of Different Biomaterial Qualities

Sectional Model: Interior

Sectional Model: Exterior

Building Model: #3

Building Model: #1

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Building Model: #2

Urban Model: Framework Construction

Urban Model: Crystalization Process

Urban Model: Full Crystalization

Crystalized Building Construction Sequence

Crystalization Timeline at Room Scale and Building Scale

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Interior Building Chunk

Exterior Building Chunk

Core Building Chunk

Floor Connection Chunk

Joist Connection Chunk

Core Connection Chunk

University Project

CROSSROADS Graduate - December 2023 Collaborated with: Lula Chou Instructor: Laurie Hawkinson What if the armory transcends its physical boundaries and becomes an urban condenser, a local culinary center, and a nexus of human connection?

With a balance of landscape and buildings, density and expanse, passages and destinations, this proposal utilizes the space under the armory roof to integrate various programs and specialized services. The integrated mixture will not only help support healthy lifestyles but also further enhance economic prosperity for its users and the surrounding neighborhood.

The project unfolds across four interconnected towers, each dedicated to address specific local needs, including food, culture, sports, and health. Different user groups of the neighborhood meander through the armory, gaining a diverse range of experiences and social interactions with others. Opening up the exterior facade and sculpting pathways to allow people to use the building as a portal to shortcut passages and continuous journey experiences. The armory transcends into an intersection of extended opportunities for the explorers.

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Site is Located Amidst 4 User Groups: Patients, Students, From Aways, and Local Residents

User Groups Dictate Path Cuts, Which Create New Entrances and Protect the Existing Ornamentations

The existing condition is situated within 4 major user groups: the patient population that enters from the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center to the southwest, the student population towards the north of the site, the from away population that exists the subway and bus stations to enter from the east, and the local residents that surround the site. The users dictate cut paths across the building that break down the fortress-like form and section off areas for the internal building stacks.

Each building stack hosts unique sets of programs to create an overall ecosystem. The site, being identified as a food desert, implements food programs such as mercados and community farms as its primary focus, interweaving them across the entire project. Each user group has its own unique experiences traversing through the project, occupying different programs across different stacks to generate social engagement and communal connections.

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Patients’ Activity Zone: View at Sunken Courtyard and Stack Extrusion Out of the Existing Armory Walls.

Local Residents’ Activity Zone: Across Bridge and Social Interactions on Upper Level

From Aways’ Activity Zone: View at Subway Station Connection.

Students’ Activity Zone: View Inside Library.

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University Project

CURTAIN CALL Graduate - December 2023 Collaborated with: JJ Jin, Tai Ning, Chung An Lu Instructor: Joe Brennan The mixed-use building sits on a 29,990-squarefoot lot situated north of Madison Square Park and east of Penn Station. The building is located on Broadway, which will be fully transformed into a pedestrian street in the near future. Taking advantage of the urban change, the building is programmed with commercial hotels, service apartments, and offices to take advantage of the prime location. The tower is set back into the lot to open up green space to attract pedestrians on Broadway into the commercial area. Additionally, the creation of additional open space on the ground floor allows additional square footage to be introduced to increase tower height per special zoning laws.

The two towers, separated by use, are offset from each other to avoid view obstruction and areas with inefficient access to sunlight. They share mid-level amenities and view decks connected by bridges at optimal locations to avoid visual obstruction by surrounding buildings while seeing notable landmarks such as the Empire State Building. Floor plans are laid out to allow maximum sunlight access to locations that require it, such as open offices, living rooms, and bedrooms. The responsive louver system reflects the needs of both the sunlight and wind rose analysis, reducing heat gain while directing ventilation into the building.

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1. Massing pushed back for open space to invite pedestrians from Broadway into the site

2. Offices cantilever out to match lot lines, provide shading for ground floor plaza, and reduce obstructed views

3. Service apartments, hotels, and offices are separated by 3 towers staggered to eliminate view obstruction

4. Office tower connects with lower offices in the podium; commercial programs on ground floor push in to create shaded plaza

5. Ground floor as well as podium floor are porous to create ease of traffic flow for the public, natural air flow, and a lightness to the tower

6. Bridges, viewing decks, and terraces are created to host amenities, introduce green space, and provide a viewing deck to surrounding landmarks for the hotel

Workflow diagram that showcases the computational workflow between Excel, Grasshopper, Rhino, RhinoInside, and Revit The project is also designed through an iterative process that is informed by continued building simulation and analysis.

Site is located near landmarks: Empire State Building, Penn Station, Madison Square Park. Project aligns height to taller surrounding tower.

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Commercial program on ground floor for most amount of traffic; office on lower floors because lower view requirements; hotels and service apartments in two towers to optimize views; condos at the top to maximize value.

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0 Lux

1000 Lux

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Retail

Retail

Retail

Restaurant

Restaurant

Cafe

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Hotel Lobby WC 4

Retail

WC

Retail

Retail

Retail

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Retail

Luminance Analysis: 1500 Lux mean value, well-lit for any environment

Service Apartment Lobby

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Retail

Retail

Retail

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Typical Commercial Floor Plan: Large storefronts and easy circulation

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Office

Office

Open Work Space

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Office

Office 3

Meeting

Daylight Analysis: Hotel rooms and offices have >50% daylight

Meeting

Meeting

Meeting

Meeting

Bar Meeting

WC

WC

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Storage Office

Storage

Meeting

Storage

Meeting

Office

Meeting

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WC

WC 6

0kWh/m2

10kWh/m2

Open Work Space

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Lounge Space Kitchen 8

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Typical Office Floor Plan: Open floor plan

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Sun Radiation Analysis: Comfortable to warm heat gain to reduce excess heating during the winter

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Double Suite Storage

Double Suite

Double Suite Triple Suite

Open Work Space

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WC

Single Suite WC 3

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Storage/Maintenance

Single Suite

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Double Suite

Kitchen Meeting 4

Double Suite Office

Office

Single Suite

Single Suite

Single Suite

Office

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1 Bdrm Unit 7

2 Bdrm Unit

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Glare Analysis: Open office placed in areas of less glare, while conference rooms are located in areas of more glare

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Typical Office + Hotel + Service Apartment Floor Plan: Staggered towers to optimize view; cores of hotel and apartment are located at only place where the two towers overlap

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{3D}

Northeast Facade

Direct Sun Hour Analysis: Direct sun hours and heat gain dictate the depth of louvers to reduce overheating and excess energy usage

View Analysis: 30 degree view analysis dictate openings in facade to optimize users’ views of landmarks and avoid blockage

Wind Rose Analysis: Wind rose dictate direction of louver fins to maximize ventilation

F41 484' - 0" F40 472' - 0" F39 460' - 0" F38 448' - 0" F37 436' - 0" F36 424' - 0" Roof F35 412' - 0" F34 400' - 0" F33 388' - 0" F32 376' - 0" F31 364' - 0" F30 352' - 0" F29 340' - 0" F28 328' - 0" F27 316' - 0" F26 304' - 0" F25 292' - 0" F24 280' - 0" F23 268' - 0" F22 256' - 0" F21 244' - 0" F20 232' - 0" F19 220' - 0" F18 208' - 0" F17 196' - 0" F16 184' - 0" F15 172' - 0" F14 160' - 0" F13 148' - 0" F12 136' - 0" F11 124' - 0" F10 112' - 0" F9 100' - 0" F8 88' - 0" F7 76' - 0" F6 64' - 0" F5 52' - 0" F4 40' - 0" F3 28' - 0" F2 16' - 0"

F1 0' - 0" B1 -12' - 0" B2 -24' - 0"

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{3D}

Facade Assembly and Louver Response to Analysis

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2

Elevation 2 - a 1/32" = 1'-0"

North Facade

Personal Built Project

WANGXIAOHUI ART MUSEUM April 2021 Collaborated with: Elaine Zhu Client: Xiaohui Wang

The façade concept design project renovated the front façade of an old office building into a new art museum for artist Xiaohui Wang.

The red color of the façade contrasts the surrounding mono-colored gray facades, attracting passerby at a first glace and also accompanying the artists two artwork that attaches to the façade. The strong lighting along with the red coloring create a strong highlight and attraction for the building at night, presenting the building as a beacon of the otherwise mundane city block. The two large slabs presents a clean and simple statement, removing the messy and distracting façade of the old office building. The left slab tilts at an upward angle, creating an overhang above the small threshold to the left of the building. The right slab tilts downwards, allowing the artist to project artworks and advertisement on to the clean façade. The front courtyard of the building is also cleared out to provide strong visual access to the building from the street level, while also acting as a multipurpose exhibition or event space for the artist if required. Overall, the façade transformed into a cleaner and unique impression to the gallery, standing out from its surrounding environments.

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Past Condition: Facade

Iterations 1

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Past Condition: Front Elevation

Iterations 2

Concept Sketch

Iterations 3

Iterations 4

Concept Sketch

Iterations 5

Iterations 6

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Internship Project

KUNMING WUJIABA GREENLAND HEADQUARTERS July 2019 Collaborated with: AECOM Shanghai Design Team

As the Yunnan’s provincial capital, Kunming plays an irreplaceable role in Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy. Zooming in, the Wujiaba area in central Kunming, with a total area of 1091.11 hectares, is Kunming’s future CBD. AECOM’s masterplan transforms the historic Wujiaba airport into a future smart city with the Wujiaba Greenland Headquarters at its core.

The Wujiaba Greenland Headquarters is a 415,000 m2 urban mixed-use development featuring a 428m landmark tower, two 200 m luxury residential towers, a 70,000m2 retailentertainment complex and a convention center.

The main tower combines high end office space, a five-star hotel, premium international serviced apartments, luxury sky villas and is topped with a cloud art gallery featuring a 360 degree view of Kunming. By integrating the natural curve of flower petals into the façade design, AECOM vividly created this three-dimensional urban structure in the design concept of “Bloomsome” that successfully preserved Kunming’s unique ‘nature’ character with a cutting edge sustainable design. The super-high-rise urban complex also promotes convenience and diverse lifestyles in a low carbon environment that testifies Kunming being China‘s “Spring City”.

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As the part of the design team, I mainly focused on the podium design with significant contributions to the façade wrap and podium form. The wrap is composed of light aluminum board with perforated that allows LED lights to be inserted, acting as a screen for advertisements or entertainment purposes. The façade wrap thins out on one end to allow the terraces to overlook the streets. The terracing landscape, influenced by the rice terrace and silk road, generates an outdoor public green space for the users of the space gather and socialize.

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Internship Project

DONGGUANGNAN STATION TOD July 2019 Collaborated with: AECOM Shanghai Design Team

The Dongguangnan Station TOD is proposed to connect and be located in between three major districts: a traditional financial district, a large commercial, and a modern internal residential district. The site is located at the intersection of Metro Line 11 and Metro Line 6, running to the city core as well as across towards the crucial business and residential districts.

The surrounding areas is composed of mainly residential parcels with strong presence of educational facilities and commercial buildings, elevating the strength of the site for a TOD station to increase ease of transportation.

The project proposes a series of mixed-used buildings on top of the station on two adjacent sites to integrate into the community with retail stores and community business, while enhancing business flourishment in the area.

Dongguangnan Station TOD proses a strong Green Building Plan with strong Sustainable Base Planning & Design with outdoor natural ventilation and solar access, Water Saving Design with reuse of collected rainwater and grey water system, and Building Energy Saving Design with VVVF lift & escalator and exhaust heat recovery systems.

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Office

Commercial

Residential

School

As the part of the analysis team, I researched and diagrammed the metro lines across Chengdu as well as the surrounding building typologies, analyzing the most optimal position for the TOD station. With the two sites, I also diagrammed circulation and path of travel through the three levels of the proposal: below ground, on ground, and above ground through the sky bridge. Additionally, I created the massing for all surrounding buildings for the design team to situate the TOD stations’ building size and height in accordance to the surrounding environment.

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Thomas Wang Columbia GSAPP MSAAD Student thomaswang.wht@gmail.com +12139996880